Receiving items into inventory

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure involves the receipt of inventory items in a materials handling facility. In one embodiment, a listing of inventory items associated with an inventory is maintained in a memory accessible to a computing device. An attempt is made to identify a match between a first image of a receivable item and a second image of one of the inventory items. If a match is successfully identified, an identifier associated with the one of the inventory items is rendered, where the identifier is to be associated with the receivable item.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority to,co-pending U.S. patent application entitled “Receiving Items intoInventory,” filed on Sep. 10, 2009, and assigned application Ser. No.12/556,765, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Various materials handling facilities may be the destination ofshipments of many different items each day. For large facilities, thenumber of shipments and their corresponding items may be very large,numbering in the thousands. For some entities, it is necessary tomaintain an accurate count of each of the items received in inventory.However, it can often be the case that shipments enter a materialshandling facility that cannot be properly received into inventory due toa lack of identifying information and other problems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood withreference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings arenot necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearlyillustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a drawing of a receive portion of a materials handlingfacility according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a drawing of various subsets of inventory items in theinventory stored in the materials handling facility of FIG. 1 accordingto various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a drawing of a flowchart that illustrates one example offunctionality implemented in a computing device in a network in thereceive portion of the materials handling facility of FIG. 1 accordingto various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a drawing of a flowchart that illustrates one example offunctionality implemented in a computing device in a network in thereceive portion of the materials handling facility of FIG. 1 accordingto various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of one example of the computingdevice implementing the functionality illustrated in FIG. 3 according tovarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of one example of the computingdevice implementing the functionality illustrated in FIG. 4 according tovarious embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference to FIG. 1, shown is a portion of a materials handlingfacility 100 according to various embodiments. Specifically, shown is aportion of a materials handling facility 100 in which items destined forthe materials handling facility 100 are received into an inventory. Thematerials handling facility 100 includes various conveyors, slides,chutes, or other materials handling structures that create one or moreprimary pathways 103 that guide the movement of shipments 106 afterbeing unloaded from trucks or other delivery vehicles destined forinventory locations within the materials handling facility 100. Althoughthe primary pathway 103 may be described herein in the singular, it isunderstood that a materials handling facility 100 may have multipleparallel primary pathways 103 through which shipments 106 or items 107travel during the receive process. Also, various carts, totes,forklifts, and other materials handling equipment may be employed in thematerials handling facility 100 to move shipments 106 or items 107 fromplace to place.

A shipment 106 may include one or more items 107 that are packed in abox, carton, or other container. Alternatively, a shipment 106 mayactually be a single item 107 as can be appreciated. For purposes of thefollowing discussion, reference to a shipment 106 is the same asreferring to one or more items 107 that are packaged together. Theprimary pathway 103 provides for the movement of shipments 106 or items107 for which no defects or problems have been identified in the receiveprocess so that such shipments 106 may be accepted into inventory.

According to one embodiment, the materials handling facility 100includes a vision tunnel 109 that is used to perform an automatedexamination of shipments 106 that are to be received into inventory toidentify potential defects. Alternatively, such an examination ofshipments 106 may be performed manually.

The materials handling facility 100 includes various exception pathways113 or other routes along which various shipments 106 may be directedwhen exceptions or problems are noted such that the shipments 106 cannotbe received in inventory for one or more reasons. The exception pathway113 may comprise, for example, conveyor belts, slides, chutes, or otherstructures as can be appreciated. The exception pathway 113 may routeshipments 106 to an exception station 116 so that corrective action maybe taken with respect to a problem noted with the shipment 106 so thatthe shipment 106 may be received into the inventory of the materialshandling facility 100 as will be described.

The exception station 116 includes a client 119. The client 119 isrepresentative of a plurality of types of computing devices or resourcesthat may be employed for the purposes described herein. For example, theclient 119 may comprise a processor-based system such as a computersystem. Such a computer system may be embodied in the form of a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a cellulartelephone, web pads, tablet computer systems, or other devices with likecapability.

The client 119 may include, for example various input devices such as,for example, a keyboard 123. The input devices may also comprise, forexample, a keypad, touch pad, touch screen, microphone, scanner, mouse,joystick, or one or more push buttons, etc. The client 119 may includevarious output devices such as a display device, indicator lights,speakers, etc. The display device may comprise, for example, cathode raytubes (CRTs), liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, gas plasma-basedflat panel displays, LCD projectors, or other types of display devices,etc.

In addition, an image capture device 126 is coupled to the client 119.The image capture device 126 may comprise, for example, a digital cameraor other appropriate type of capture device that is capable ofgenerating an image or other reproduction of a given shipment 106 oritem 107 as will be described. The image capture device 126 generatesimages 129 that are communicated to the client 119. The exceptionstation 116 also includes one or more printers 133 that printidentifiers to be affixed to shipments 106 as will be described. To thisend, the printer 133 may comprise a laser printer, ink jet printer,label printer, or any other appropriate type of printer.

Executed in the client 119 is an item receive application 136 thatperforms various operations to implement corrective action with respectto shipments 106 or items 107 that have not been marked properly by avendor to be received into inventory as will be described. The client119 is coupled to a server 139 through a network 143. To this end, thenetwork 143 may comprise, for example, the Internet, intranets,extranets, wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), wirednetworks, wireless networks, or other suitable networks, etc., or anycombination of two or more such networks. For purposes of convenience,the client 119 and the server 139 may each be referred to herein in thesingular. However, it is understood that in one embodiment, the client119 may represent a plurality of client devices or resources, and theserver 139 may represent a plurality of server devices or resources.

In addition, the materials handling facility 100 includes a weighstation 146 coupled to the network 143. The weigh station 146 maycomprise, for example, a client device with appropriate scale componentsto generate a weight of a shipment 106 or item 107 during the receiveprocess. Alternatively, the vision tunnel 109 may include a scale thatmeasures a weight of the shipment 106 or item 107. This may be done toidentify shipments 106 or items 107 that do not weigh as much asexpected. Such a discrepancy may cause such a shipment 106 or item 107to be diverted or sidelined for inspection, etc. In such case, the weighstation 146 may be eliminated.

The server 139 comprises one example of a computing device or computingresource that may be employed to execute various components as describedherein. The server 139 may comprise, for example, a server computer orlike system, and may represent multiple server computers arranged, forexample, in one or more server banks or other arrangements. Such servercomputers may be located in a single installation or may be dispersedamong many different geographical locations. To this end, the server 139may be viewed as a computing resource comprising a server “cloud,” forexample, that represents the computing capacity of multiple servercomputers, etc.

The various applications on the server 139 include an inventory controlsystem 153 and an image matching process 156, and/or other applications,services, engines, or functionality not discussed in detail herein. Inaddition, stored in the data store or other data storage structure isinventory 159. The inventory 159 includes a listing of inventory items163. Associated with each inventory item 163 is an inventory itemdescription that may include, for example, item data 166 and one or moreimages 169. The item data 166 includes information about a giveninventory item 163, such as, for example, dimensions, weight, featuresof the inventory item 163, item descriptions, and other information. Theitem data 166 also includes an identifier 173 that uniquely identifies arespective inventory item 163 in the inventory 159. The identifier 173associated with each inventory item 163 may comprise, for example, aunique identifier 173 with respect to a given vendor or may be auniversally recognized identifier 173 for the respective inventory item163 that is issued by an independent entity. Such identifiers 173 maycomprise, for example, universal product codes (UPC), European articlenumbers (EAN), global trade item numbers (GTIN), Australian productnumbers (APN), or other types of identifiers 173 that uniquely identifya given inventory item 163. The one or more images 169 may depict theitem 107, the packaging associated with the item 107, multiple instancesof items 107 packed together in an arrangement (i.e. item packagesplaced together in a box), or other depiction associated with one ormore items 107.

During operation, the image matching process 156 may examine varioussubsets of inventory items 163 (“inventory item subsets” 176) in anattempt to match an image 129 of an item 107 with a respective image 169of an inventory item 163 in the inventory 159. In one embodiment, theidentifiers 173 may also appear on various ones of the shipments 106when they first arrive at the materials handling facility 100.Unfortunately, some of the shipments 106 may not include an identifier173, or the identifier 173 may be damaged or separated from the shipment106 itself during transit. According to various embodiments, one of theerrors that is corrected at the exception station 116 comprises ashipment 106 or item 107 that lacks an identifier 173 such that itcannot be recognized, correlated, or matched with a correspondinginventory item 163 listed in the inventory 159 and maintained by theinventory control system 153.

One or more identifiers 173 may be associated with a shipment 106, whereeach identifier 173 is associated with corresponding ones of theproducts 107 included in the shipment 106. In some cases, a shipment 106may include a box that has several different items 107 included therein,thereby necessitating multiple identifiers 173 to be affixed to the box,crate, carton, or other container that comprises the shipment 106. Sucha list of identifiers 173 may be affixed to the side of the box thatmakes up the shipment 106, where each identifier 173 corresponds with arespective item 107. Alternatively, identifiers 173 may be associated oraffixed to each of the items 107 within a shipment 106.

In addition, where a vision tunnel 109 is employed to receive shipments106 and/or items 107 in the materials handling facility 100, the visiontunnel 109 may be employed to perform an automated examination ofshipments 106 that include one or more items 107 in an attempt to locateone or more identifiers 173 associated with the items 107 included inthe shipment 106 that correspond with identifiers 173 of respectiveinventory items 163 as described above. In addition, the vision tunnel109 may examine a shipment 106 for damage or other exceptions such thatthe shipment 106 or item 107 cannot be received into the inventory ofthe materials handling facility 100. The vision tunnel 109 may alsodetermine the weight of shipments 106 or items 107 and perform otherfunctions. To this end, the vision tunnel 109 may be better understoodwith reference to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/241,475, entitled “Systems And Methods For Receiving ShipmentParcels” filed on Sep. 30, 2008, and co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/329,927, entitled “Systems And Methods For ReceivingShipment Parcels” filed on Dec. 8, 2008, both of these co-pending patentapplications being incorporated herein by reference.

Next, a general description of the operation of the various componentsof the materials handling facility 100 depicted in FIG. 1 is provided.To begin, shipments 106 of items 107 that arrive at the materialshandling facility 100 must be received into inventory. In this respect,the concept of being “received” means that items 107 of a shipment 106are recognized, correlated, or matched to inventory items 163 tracked inthe inventory 159 by the inventory control system 153. In this respect,the inventory control system 153 acts to keep track of the quantitiesand location of each individual inventory item 163 that is stored in thematerials handling facility 100. By knowing the specific quantities ofinventory items 163, a merchant can determine when they need to ordernew items 107 when various inventory items 163 become depleted in theinventory 159. Also, merchants may identify when certain items 107 donot sell and may not order additional items 107 accordingly. Inaddition, the inventory control system 153 maintains the location ofeach of the items 107 within the materials handling facility 100 so thatsuch items 107 may be found to fulfill orders for items 107 or for someother purpose. In addition, the inventory control system 153 performsother functions as can be appreciated.

When a shipment 106 with one or more items 107 arrives at the materialshandling facility 100, the items 107 associated with the shipment 106are correlated or matched to inventory items 163 of the listing ofinventory 159 maintained by the inventory control system 153. To theextent that identifiers 173 exist on the shipment 106 or on theindividual items 107 that correlate such items 107 to respectiveinventory items 163, then such shipments 106 can be received into theinventory 159 provided there are no other problems such as damage, etc.Thus, the concept of “receiving” an item 107 into the inventory of thematerials handling facility 100 refers to the fact that items 107 arerecognized as, or correlated/matched to, various inventory items 163.This is possible given that item identifiers 173 associated with ashipment 106 or item 107 correlate or match such items 107 to variousinventory items 163 given that the identifiers 173 are also associatedwith such inventory items 163. The identifiers 173 may comprise digits,words, bar codes, characters, or other identifying indicia that can beplaced on or otherwise associated with a shipment 106 or individualitems 107.

As mentioned above, in some situations a shipment 106 or item 107 may besent to a materials handling facility 100 without appropriateidentifiers 173, or the identifiers 173 may be damaged or removed intransit.

In such case, such items 107 associated with such shipments 106 may bedeemed receivable, but may not be “received” into the inventory 159 assuch items 107 cannot be matched with, or correlated to, respectiveinventory items 163 maintained in the listing of the inventory 159.Until such items 107 can be matched with or correlated to respectiveinventory items 163, they cannot be received into the inventory 159 assuch items 107 are effectively unknown. If such items 107 are placed inthe materials handling facility 100 in stocking locations withoutknowing what they are or how they correlate with the inventory 159, thensuch items 107 may ultimately be lost unless procedures are employed toimplement the recognition of such items 107.

According to one embodiment, shipments 106 or items 107 that arrive atthe materials handling facility 100 without appropriate identifiers 173that allow such items 107 to be recognized are deemed to be an exceptionand are applied to an exception pathway 113 for resolution of theproblem. According to one embodiment, the vision tunnel 109 may serve toimplement the automated determination as to whether one or moreidentifiers 173 are in fact associated with a shipment 106 or the items107 associated therewith. In such case, where shipments 106 or items 107do not include identifiers 173 as needed, the vision tunnel 109 maycause such shipments 106 to automatically be guided to the exceptionpathway 113 for resolution of the problem. In another alternative,personnel may manually determine that identifiers 173 cannot be foundwith respect to a given shipment 106 or item(s) 107 and may manuallyroute such shipment 106 or items 107 to the exception pathway 113.

According to one embodiment, once a given shipment 106 or item 107arrives at an exception station 116, one or more items 107 are accessedand the item receive application 136 facilitates the capture of an image129 of such items 107 using the image capture device 126. The image 129may comprise an image 129 of a single item 107 or of multiple items 107packed together in a known configuration. In addition, the item receiveapplication 136 facilitates the input of any corroborating informationknown about the shipment 106 or item 107 via the keyboard 123 or otherinput device as can be appreciated. Such corroborating information aboutthe shipment 106 or item(s) 107 may comprise, for example, an ordernumber, a vendor name, an advance shipment notification generated by thevendor, quantities of items 107 within the container making up theshipment 106, purchase orders associated with a delivery vehicle withinwhich the shipment 106 arrived, partial readings of barcodes or otheridentifiers 173, or any other information that can be obtained from therespective shipment 106. In one embodiment, only the image 129 of theitem 107 may be obtained, where no corroborating information is known orotherwise input into the client 119 to minimize the involvement ofpersonnel.

After the image 129 has been generated and corroborating information, ifany, has been entered into the client 119 (if any) for one or more items107 associated with a shipment 106, then the item receive application136 sends the image 129 and corroborating information (if any) to theimage matching process 156 in the server 139.

Upon receiving the image and any corroborating information, the imagematching process 156 first identifies one or more inventory item subsets176 of all of the inventory 159 to be examined in order to determine amatch between the image 129 of a respective item 107 and one of theimages 169 associated with a given inventory item 163. By matching theimage 129 of the item 107 with one of the images 169, the image matchingprocess 156 can correlate the item 107 with one of the inventory items163.

According to one embodiment, the total number of images 169 that need tobe compared with the image 129 obtained of the item 107 is limited toone or more inventory item subsets 176 to increase the accuracy of thematching process. The inventory item subsets 176 are subsets of all ofthe inventory items 163 listed in the inventory 159. Each of theinventory item subsets 176 are identified based, for example, at leastin part upon the corroborating information or other information receivedfrom the client 119 in association with a given image 129. For example,the corroborating information may include an order number obtained fromthe shipment 106 or item 107. It may be the case that several differentinventory items 163 are associated with such an order number, but thatthe total number of inventory items 163 associated with the order is farless than the total number of inventory items 163 stored in the listingof inventory 159.

In such case, the image 129 is compared to the images 169 of thoseinventory items 163 that are included in the respective order identifiedby the order number. This significantly reduces the amount of processingrequired to be performed by the image matching process 156 in order tocorrelate or match one or more items 107 with respective inventory items163. For a more detailed discussion of how images 129 of items 107 canbe correlated or matched with images 169 of inventory items 163maintained in the inventory 159, reference is made to U.S. patentapplication entitled “Method and System for Representing Image Patches”filed on Jan. 14, 2009 and assigned application Ser. No. 12/319,992,which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Once a given inventory item subset 176 is identified, then the imagematching process 156 proceeds to attempt to match or correlate the image129 of the respective item 107 with a respective one of the images 169of the inventory items 163 falling within the inventory item subset 176.Assuming that a match is found such that a given image 129 correlates tothe image 169 of a respective inventory item 163, then the imagematching process 156 transmits the identifier 173 and potentially otherinformation associated with the inventory item 163 to the client 119.The item receive application 136 then proceeds to cause the printer 133to print the identifier 173 on an appropriate label, paper, or othermedium that can be affixed to or otherwise associated with therespective shipment 106 or item 107. Alternatively, the printer 133 orother output device may render the identifier 173 directly onto ashipment 106 or item 107 in some other manner.

Ultimately, due to the association of an identifier 173 on the shipment106 or item(s) 107, the items 107 may be associated with respectiveinventory items 163. Accordingly, such item(s) 107 are “known” withrespect to the inventory 159 of the materials handling facility 100 andcan be placed in predefined locations designated for such inventoryitems 163. To this end, it may be desirable to place items 107 in bins,spaces, shelves, cordoned areas, or other inventory locations withsimilar items 107 that have already been located within the materialshandling facility 100. Further, the inventory control system 153 may bemade aware of the additional quantity of the items 107 associated withthe shipment 106 that are to be received into the inventory 159.Thereafter, the shipment 106 and/or items 107 may be reintroduced intothe flow of shipments 106 and/or items 107 that are formally receivedinto the inventory stored in the materials handling facility 100.

Shipments 106 or items 107 may then be applied to the weigh station 146to weigh the shipment 106 or one or more items 107. The weigh station146 may communicate with the inventory control system 153 on the server139 to obtain an expected weight of such items 107 or shipments 106 fromthe item data 166 associated with such inventory items 163 correspondingto the items 107 from the server 139. Such data may indicate the weightof items 107 individually and/or as grouped together in a container as ashipment 106. To this end, the weigh station 146 can determine whetherthe measured weight of the shipment 106 and/or one or more items 107comports with the expected weight of such shipment 106 or items 107 asdetermined from the weights of items 107 determined from the server 139to verify that the one or more items 107 are in fact what they purportto be. In addition, in one embodiment it should be noted that theshipment 106 or items 107 may be weighed in the vision tunnel 109,thereby making the weigh station 146 unnecessary.

Assuming that the verification is successful, such items 107 may bedeemed as “received” into the materials handling facility 100 where thenumber of such items 107 may be indicated in the inventory controlsystem 153 and recorded in the inventory 159 in association with therespective inventory items 163. Thereafter, such shipments 106 and/oritems 107 may proceed to other stations to be placed into appropriatestorage locations within the materials handling facility 100.

In some cases, it may be the case that the image matching process 156 isunable to correlate an image 129 with a respective image 169 of aninventory item 163. This may occur, for example, where the image 129 isflawed in some manner or where the image 169 of the counterpartinventory item 163 that matches the item 107 is flawed. In addition,there may be other reasons why the image matching process 156 is unableto correlate the image 129 of the item 107 with an image 169 of therespective inventory item 163.

In such case, the image matching process 156 transmits a response to theitem receive application 136 indicating that a match could not be found.In addition, the image matching process 156 or other process maygenerate a placeholder identifier that is included in the response thatis to be printed or otherwise rendered and associated with therespective shipment 106 or item 107. The placeholder identifier may beemployed to allow a shipment 106 or item 107 to be received and storedinto inventory in the materials handling facility 100, where theplaceholder identifier is used to track the location of the shipment 106and/or item 107 until the item(s) 107 can be correlated to or matchedwith one or more respective inventory items 163 in the future.

The item receive application 136 may render a placeholder identifierthat is to be physically associated with the item 107 or shipment 106.In one embodiment, the placeholder identifier may be rendered on asticker or other medium that is attached to or otherwise associated witha shipment 106 or individual item(s) 107 as described above. Thereafter,the shipment 106 and/or item 107 is directed back to the primary pathway103 be placed in an appropriate inventory location. The weight of theshipment 106 or item 107 may be taken by the weigh station 146 or visiontunnel 109 and stored in a data store in association with a placeholderidentifier for future access. The placeholder identifier may be storedin an appropriate data store along with the image 129 and otherinformation that may have been obtained about the item 107 or shipment106 so that the shipment 106 or item 107 can be manually investigated ata later time to correlate such items 107 or the shipment 106 torespective inventory items 163. Assuming that later investigationultimately correlates an item 107 or shipment 106 to a respectiveinventory item 163, then the association between the item 107 and/orshipment 106 and the respective inventory item 163 may be fed back intothe image matching process 156 to improve the matching function. Forexample, an association between the image 129 of an item 107 and theimage 169 of an inventory item 163 may be fed back to the image matchingprocess 156 to improve its function. In addition, other data associatedwith the match may be fed back to the image matching process 156 as maybe deemed appropriate.

The one or more items 107 associated with the shipment 106 may be placedinto the inventory of the materials handling facility 100 asnon-shippable as it may not actually be known what such items 107 arerelative to the inventory 159 and, consequently, such items 107 cannotbe mated with orders for goods to be shipped. Also, the quantity of suchitems 107 is not added to the listing of the inventory 159 as theinventory item 163 is not known.

Further attempts to correlate or match the one or more items 107 of ashipment 106 with respective inventory items 163 may be performed afterthe items 107 are placed in an appropriate location in inventory, wherethe placeholder identifier is used to track the location of such one ormore items 107 or shipments 106. To this end, the materials handlingfacility 100 may provide for the entry of locations where items 107 maybe placed in the materials handling facility 100 in association with theidentifiers 173 or placeholder identifiers that are physicallyassociated with such one or more items 107 or shipments 106. Forexample, a bar code or other identifier associated with an inventorylocation in the materials handling facility 100 may be scanned orentered at the time that items 107 are placed therein, thereby informingthe inventory control system 153 of the location of the items 107 withinthe materials handling facility 100.

Assuming that subsequent attempts to correlate or match the one or moreitems 107 of a shipment 106 to one or more inventory items 163 have beensuccessful, then the one or more items 107 of the shipment 106 may bedeemed as shippable as they have been correlated with one or more of theinventory items 163 and can now be counted among the inventory 159 thatis available to fulfill orders for goods or that is available for otherpurposes. Further attempts may employ the same procedures as the initialattempt or may employ different approaches. In one embodiment, it may bethe case that a new image 129 of an item 107 is captured as there mayhave been a problem with the previous image 129 that prevented a matchfrom being detected.

Referring next to FIG. 2, shown is a Venn diagram that illustratesexamples of the inventory item subsets 176 that may be specified forpurposes of matching an image 129 (FIG. 1) of an item 107 (FIG. 1) withan image 169 (FIG. 1) of an inventory item 163 (FIG. 1) in order tocorrelate a given item 107 with the respective inventory item 163 in theinventory 159 according to one embodiment. The Venn diagram includes anumber of different inventory item subsets 176 of the inventory 159 asshown. For example, various inventory item subsets 176 may includeinventory items 163 (FIG. 1) associated with a common factor orcharacteristic.

To provide specific examples, an inventory item subset 176 may includeall inventory items 163 that are associated with an order number 176 aand/or a vendor 176 b. An inventory item subset 176 may include allinventory items 163 associated with purchase orders delivered by a givendelivery vehicle 176 c as indicated by a given manifest, or inventoryitems 163 associated with an advance ship notification 176 d receivedfrom a vendor. Further inventory item subsets 176 include all items 107that are shipped in containers that hold predefined carton quantities176 e, or other factors associated with the shipment 106 (FIG. 1) ofitems 107.

Also, inventory item subsets 176 may be specified as all inventory items163 having a predefined partial identifier 176 f (i.e. as in the casethat an identifier 173 (FIG. 1) or other code was damaged), or inventoryitems 163 that fall in any one of all of the outstanding purchase orders176 g for a particular materials handling facility 100 (FIG. 1). Notethat a partial identifier 176 f may actually include a greater or lesserportion of the inventory 159 than is depicted in FIG. 2. In somesituations, a partial identifier 176 f may include the entire inventory159. Further, the inventory item subset 176 may include all inventoryitems 163 that are listed in any outstanding purchase orders 176 h for anumber of materials handling facilities 100. In addition, inventory itemsubsets 176 may be drawn around many other factors or characteristicsassociated with various inventory items 163 as can be appreciated.Further, an inventory item subset 176 may be drawn around any two ormore such factors or characteristics.

The specification of the various inventory item subsets 176 aids in theattempt to correlate or match the image 129 of an item 107 with acorresponding image 169 of an inventory item 163 in order to match orcorrelate the item 107 with a given inventory item 163. To this end, theimage matching process 156 may identify the subset of inventory items163 or their descriptions that have one or more common factors orcharacteristics such as those described above. Once the inventory itemsubset 176 is identified, then the image matching process 156 mayproceed to attempt to correlate the image 129 of an item 107 with theimages 169 of inventory items 163 that fall within the inventory itemsubset 176 under consideration.

It may be the case that several different inventory item subsets 176 maybe identified for a given item 107 under consideration. According to oneembodiment, inventory items 163 of the various inventory item subsets176 are considered in order from the smallest of the inventory itemsubsets 176 to the largest. Alternatively, the inventory item subsets176 may be considered in some other order such as in the order of aprobability that common factors or characteristics will result in amatch. By considering the inventory item subsets 176 in this manner, theprobability is increased that a corresponding match will be found morequickly.

For example, if a given inventory item subset 176 comprises the subsetof inventory items 163 having a common order number 176 a, then it maybe the case that there are only a handful of inventory items 163 listedin association with the order number 176 a. As such, the image matchingprocess 156 (FIG. 1) need only compare the image 129 with the limitednumber of images 169 of the respective inventory items 163 fallingwithin the inventory item subset 176 a. This would take much less timethan would be the case if the image matching process 156 needed tocompare the image 129 with all of the inventory items 163 in the entireinventory 159.

Also, the inventory item subset 176 a drawn around an order number mayprovide a much greater probability of a successful match or correlationthan and inventory item subset 176 f drawn around a partial identifier173.

In order to aid in identifying a respective inventory item subset 176,the image matching process 156 may access corroborating informationabout the item 107 entered into the client 119 (FIG. 1) by anappropriate input device such as the keyboard 123 (FIG. 1) as describedabove, where such corroborating information is forwarded to the server139 (FIG. 1) by the item receive application 136 (FIG. 1).

Given that multiple inventory item subsets 176 may be considered for agiven item 107, it is the case that a given inventory item 163 mayappear in multiple inventory item subsets 176. In such case, aninventory item 163 may be marked in the inventory 159 as having alreadybeen considered in case that it should appear once again in a second oneof the inventory item subsets 176.

In addition, when the image matching process 156 is unable to generate amatch or correlate the image 129 of an item 107 with a respective image169 of an inventory item 163, then the item receive application 136 mayrender an indication that the item 107 could not be correlated ormatched to one of the inventory items 163. Further, an indication may berendered informing personnel at the exception station 116 that theidentifier 173 rendered by the printer 133 or other output device is aplaceholder identifier.

With reference to FIG. 3, shown is a flowchart that provides one exampleof the operation of the item receive application 136 according tovarious embodiments. Alternatively, the flowchart of FIG. 3 may beviewed as implementing various steps of a method to process an exceptionfor a shipment 106 (FIG. 1) that may include one or more items 107(FIG. 1) due to lack of a proper identifier 173 (FIG. 1) that can becorrelated or matched to a respective inventory item 163 (FIG. 1)maintained in the inventory 159 (FIG. 1) of the materials handlingfacility 100 (FIG. 1).

The flowchart of FIG. 3 depicts the functionality of the item receiveapplication 136 in processing a given exception. To begin, in box 253,the item receive application 136 inputs an image 129 (FIG. 1) of an item107. This may be implemented by personnel manipulating the image capturedevice 126 (FIG. 1) causing the capture of an image 129 of the item 107that is sent to the client 119 (FIG. 1) and received as an input by theitem receive application 136. Note that the image capture device 126 maybe positioned a relative distance from the item 107 that roughly matchesthe distance of an image capture device 126 in taking the image 169(FIG. 1) of the respective counterpart inventory item 163. Thispotentially would increase the probability of a match being foundbetween respective items 107 and inventory items 163 as the images129/169 are more likely to be similar or the same if the images 129/169are captured by an image capture device 126 that is positioned the samedistance from the respective item 107 and inventory item 163. To thisend, standardized distances between the items 107 and the image capturedevice 126 may be specified to increase the probability of successfulmatching or correlation.

Next, in box 256, the item receive application 136 inputs anycorroborating information or data associated with the item 107 for whichthe image 129 was captured. To do this, personnel may enter variousinformation about the item 107 including the vendor name associated withthe item 107, the number of items 107 packed in a given carton, an ordernumber associated with the shipment 106/item 107, or any otherinformation as can be appreciated. To this end, the item receiveapplication 136 may present appropriate user interfaces with respectivefields for personnel to enter information as described above.

Thereafter, in box 259, the image 129 of the item 107 and anycorroborating information or data input into the client 119 is sentalong with a request for item identification to the image matchingprocess 156 (FIG. 1) on the server 139 (FIG. 1). Thereafter, in box 263,the item receive application 136 waits to receive a reply. In box 266,assuming that a reply has been received, if the item 107 has beenidentified such that a match exists between the image 129 of the item107 and a respective image 169 of an existing inventory item 163, thenthe item receive application 136 proceeds to box 269. Otherwise, theitem receive application 136 proceeds to box 273.

Assuming that a match has been identified between the image 129 of arespective item 107 and an image 169 of a respective inventory item 163in box 266, then in box 269 the item receive application 136 implementsthe rendering of an identifier 173 to be associated with the item 107and/or the shipment 106 as described above. In one embodiment, theidentifier 173 may be rendered on a label in the form of a bar code orother type of code using a printer 133 (FIG. 1) that operates at thedirection of the item receive application 136. According to oneembodiment, the identifier 173 is physically associated with a givenitem 107 or shipment 106 by virtue of being rendered on a sticker thatis attached to an item 107 or shipment 106. Alternatively, identifiers173 may be printed directly onto an item 107 or shipment 106 or may beassociated with the same in some other manner. Thereafter, the itemreceive application 136 ends until the next shipment 106 or item 107 isto be considered.

Referring back to box 266, if a match or correlation is not identifiedbetween a respective item 107 and an inventory item 163 such that anidentifier 173 is located for the item 107 or shipment 106, then theitem receipt application 136 proceeds to box 273 in which a placeholderidentifier is rendered to be associated with the respective item 107 orshipment 106. The placeholder identifier is maintained in an appropriatedata store so that the item 107 or shipment 106 can be tracked in termsof where it is stored within the materials handling facility 100 asdescribed above so that subsequent attempts to correlate the one or moreitems 107 of the shipment 106 with respective inventory items 163 can bemade. Also, any information about the shipment 106 may be stored inassociation with the placeholder identifier such as the measured weightof the shipment 106 or item 107, a description of the shipment 106 oritem 107, or any other information.

Thereafter, in box 276, a request for further correlation or matchingattempts of the unidentified one or more items 107 that are included inthe shipment 106 is sent to a resolution process. According to oneembodiment, the resolution may comprise a manual process ofinvestigation performed by personnel of the materials handling facility100. Alternatively, other processes may be employed in an attempt toidentify a match or correlation between items 107 and inventory items163 as can be appreciated. In one embodiment, a new image 129 of theitem 107 may be captured and the image matching process 156 may becaused to repeat the attempt to match the new image 129 with acounterpart image 169 associated with a respective inventory item 163.Thereafter, the item receive application 136 ends as shown.

Referring next to FIG. 4, shown is an example of the image matchingprocess 156 according to various embodiments. Alternatively, theflowchart of FIG. 4 may be viewed as depicting steps of a methodimplemented in the server 139 (FIG. 1) in order to identify a match orto otherwise correlate the image 129 (FIG. 1) of an item 107 (FIG. 1)with an image 169 (FIG. 1) of a respective inventory item 163 (FIG. 1).The flowchart of FIG. 4 depicts functionality that is implemented eachtime a request is received from the item receive application 136(FIG. 1) as described above.

Beginning with box 303, the image matching process 156 first determinesan initial subset of the images 169 of the inventory items 163 to beused to attempt to correlate or otherwise match the image 129 of an item107 to a counterpart inventory item 163 maintained in the listing of theinventory 159 (FIG. 1) by the inventory control system 153. This may bedone first by identifying all of the potential inventory item subsets176 (FIG. 1) that apply to the respective item 107 based at least inpart upon any corroborating information obtained from the client 119(FIG. 1) or based on other information known about the item 107. To thisend, corroborating information may be used to limit the potential poolof inventory items 163 to one or more inventory item subsets 176.

For example, if the corroborating information includes a purchase ordernumber 176 a (FIG. 2), then one inventory item subset 176 a may belimited to those inventory items 163 that are listed in the givenpurchase order. To this end, the common factor among such inventoryitems 163 is the purchase order itself. Once all of the potentialinventory item subsets 176 have been identified, then an initial one ofthe inventory item subsets 176 to be considered is selected. Accordingto one embodiment, this initial inventory item subset 176 may comprisethe smallest of all of the inventory item subsets 176. Alternatively,the initial inventory item subset 176 selected may be that deemed to bethe most likely to result in a match between the image 129 of the item107 and an image 169 of a respective inventory item 163.

To this end, the common factor used to generate a given inventory itemsubset 176 may indicate whether such inventory item subset 176 is morelikely to result in a match or correlation between respective images129/169. For example, a purchase order number that typically relates toa purchase order for a small group of items 107 may be more likely toresult in a match than would an inventory item subset 176 based oncarton quantities 176 e (FIG. 2) or other factors.

Assuming that the initial inventory item subset 176 has been determinedin box 303, then in box 306, the image matching process 156 performs acomparison analysis between the image 129 of the item 107 and the subsetof images 169 associated with the respective inventory items 163 thatfall into the respective inventory item subset 176 in an attempt tocorrelate the item 107 with a respective one of the inventory items 163.This analysis may be performed using appropriate methods such as thosedescribed in the U.S. patent application entitled “Method and System forRepresenting Image Patches” filed on Jan. 14, 2009 and assignedapplication Ser. No. 12/319,992, which is incorporated herein byreference above.

Thereafter, in box 309, the image matching process 156 determineswhether a match has been detected such that the item 107 correlates to arespective inventory item 163. If so, then the image matching process156 proceeds to box 313. Otherwise, the image matching process 156progresses to box 316.

In box 313, the image matching process 156 returns an identifier 173 tothe requesting process such as the item receive application 136 (FIG.1). Such identifier 173 is associated with the respective inventory item163 to which the item 107 correlates or matches as described above.Thereafter, the image matching process 156 ends.

In box 316, the image matching process 156 determines whether the lastone of the identified inventory item subsets 176 has been examined. Ifso, then the image matching process 156 proceeds to box 319. Otherwise,the image matching process 156 moves to box 323.

In box 319, the image matching process 156 generates a placeholderidentifier that is included with a message that is sent to the itemreceive application 136 indicating a failure to correlate or otherwisematch the image 129 of the item 107 with an image 169 of a respectiveinventory item 163. Alternatively, where a placeholder identifier is notemployed, then the return message may simply indicate a failure to matchthe image 129 with a respective image 169. Thereafter, the imagematching process 156 ends. However, assuming that the image matchingprocess 156 proceeds to box 323, then a next one of the inventory itemsubsets 176 of the inventory items 163 identified as described above isdesignated for further scrutiny. The next one of the inventory itemsubsets 176 selected for consideration may comprise the next largest oneof the subsets 176 identified in box 303 above. In this manner, the poolof images 169 of inventory items 163 considered in attempting toidentify a match with the image 129 expands with each iteration of theloop. Alternatively, the next one of the inventory item subsets 176 maycomprise the subset that is the next most likely to result in a match,etc. Thereafter, the image matching process 156 reverts back to box 306as shown.

Referring next to FIGS. 5 and 6, shown are schematic block diagrams ofexamples of computing resources and/or devices such as a client 119 andserver 139 according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

The client 119 includes at least one processor circuit, for example,having a processor 353 and a memory 356, both of which are coupled to alocal interface 359. To this end, the client 119 may comprise, forexample, a computer system or other device as described above.

The server 139 includes at least one processor circuit, for example,having a processor 363 and a memory 366, both of which are coupled to alocal interface 369. To this end, the server 139 may comprise, forexample, a server computer or other device as described above. The localinterface 369 may comprise, for example, a data bus with an accompanyingaddress/control bus or other bus structure as can be appreciated.

Stored in the memories 356/366 are both data and several componentsand/or applications that are executable by the processors 353/363. Inparticular, stored in the memory 356 and executable by the processor 353are a client operating system 373 and the item receive application 136,and potentially other applications, etc. Stored in the memory 366 andexecutable by the processor 363 are a sever operating system 376, theinventory control system 153, the image matching process 156, andpotentially other systems and applications, etc.

Also, stored in the memory 366 is a data store or other data storagestructure in which are stored the various data items described above soas to be accessible to the processor 363. For example, such stored datamay comprise the inventory 159. In addition, during the execution of theinventory control system 153, one or more inventory item subsets 176 maybe generated and stored in the memory 366 as described above. It isunderstood that other data may be stored in the memories 356/366 andaccessed by the processors 353/363 beyond the data described above.

A number of software components are stored in the memories 356/366 andare executable or executed by the processors 353/363. In this respect,the term “executable” means a program file that is in a form that canultimately be run by the processors 353/363. Examples of executableprograms may be, for example, a compiled program that can be translatedinto machine code in a format that can be loaded into a random accessportion of the memories 356/366 and run by the processors 353/363,source code that may be expressed in proper format such as object codethat is capable of being loaded into a random access portion of thememories 356/366 and executed by the processors 353/363, or source codethat may be interpreted by another executable program to generateinstructions in a random access portion of the memories 356/366 to beexecuted by the processors 353/363, etc. An executable program may bestored in any portion or component of the memories 356/366 including,for example, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), harddrive, solid-state drive, USB flash drive, memory card, optical discsuch as compact disc (CD) or digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk,magnetic tape, or other memory components.

Each memory 356/366 is defined herein as both volatile and nonvolatilememory and data storage components. Volatile components are those thatdo not retain data values upon loss of power. Nonvolatile components arethose that retain data upon a loss of power. Thus, each memory 356/366may comprise, for example, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory(ROM), hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, memorycards accessed via a memory card reader, floppy disks accessed via anassociated floppy disk drive, optical discs accessed via an optical discdrive, magnetic tapes accessed via an appropriate tape drive, and/orother memory components, or a combination of any two or more of thesememory components. In addition, the RAM may comprise, for example,static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM),or magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and other such devices. The ROMmay comprise, for example, a programmable read-only memory (PROM), anerasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM), or other like memory device.

In addition, each of the processors 353/363 may represent multipleprocessors and each of the memories 356/366 may represent multiplememories that operate in parallel. In such a case, each local interface359/369 may comprise an appropriate network that facilitatescommunication between any two of the multiple processors, between anyprocessor and any one of the memories, or between any two of thememories, etc. Each local interface 359/369 may comprise additionalsystems designed to coordinate this communication, including, forexample, performing load balancing. Each processor 353/363 may be ofelectrical or of some other available construction.

The various applications or other components described above may beimplemented using any one or more of a number of programming languagessuch as, for example, C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, VBScript, Java,JavaScript, Perl, Ruby, Python, Flash, or other programming languages.

Although the various applications and other components such as the itemreceive application 136, the inventory control system 153, and the imagematching process 156 described above may be embodied in software or codeexecuted by general purpose hardware, as an alternative each may also beembodied in dedicated hardware or a combination of software/generalpurpose hardware and dedicated hardware. If embodied in dedicatedhardware, each can be implemented as a circuit or state machine thatemploys any one of or a combination of a number of technologies. Thesetechnologies may include, but are not limited to, discrete logiccircuits having logic gates for implementing various logic functionsupon an application of one or more data signals, application specificintegrated circuits having appropriate logic gates, or other components,etc. Such technologies are generally well known by those skilled in theart and, consequently, are not described in detail herein.

The flowcharts of FIGS. 3-4 show the functionality and operation of animplementation of the various applications and/or other components suchas the item receive application 136 and the image matching process 156as described above. If embodied in software, each of the various blocksdescribed may represent a module, segment, or portion of code thatcomprises program instructions to implement the specified logicalfunction(s). The program instructions may be embodied in the form ofsource code that comprises human-readable statements written in aprogramming language or machine code that comprises numericalinstructions recognizable by a suitable execution system such as aprocessor in a computer system or other system. The machine code may beconverted from the source code, etc. If embodied in hardware, each blockmay represent a circuit or a number of interconnected circuits toimplement the specified logical function(s).

Although the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 4 show a specific order ofexecution, it is understood that the order of execution may differ fromthat which is depicted. For example, the order of execution of two ormore blocks may be scrambled relative to the order shown. Also, two ormore blocks shown in succession in FIGS. 3 and 4 may be executedconcurrently or with partial concurrence. In addition, any number ofcounters, state variables, warning semaphores, or messages might beadded to the logical flow described herein, for purposes of enhancedutility, accounting, performance measurement, or providingtroubleshooting aids, etc. It is understood that all such variations arewithin the scope of the present disclosure.

Also, where the various applications and/or other components describedherein such as the item receive application 136, the inventory controlsystem 153, and the image matching process 156 comprise software orcode, each can be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by orin connection with an instruction execution system such as, for example,a processor in a computer system or other system. In this sense, theapplications or engines may comprise, for example, statements includinginstructions and declarations that can be fetched from thecomputer-readable medium and executed by the instruction executionsystem. In the context of the present disclosure, a “computer-readablemedium” can be any medium that can contain, store, or maintain logic orcode for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system.The computer readable medium can comprise any one of many physical mediasuch as, for example, electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor media. More specific examples of a suitablecomputer-readable medium would include, but are not limited to, magnetictapes, magnetic floppy diskettes, magnetic hard drives, memory cards,solid-state drives, USB flash drives, or optical discs. Also, thecomputer-readable medium may be a random access memory (RAM) including,for example, static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM). Inaddition, the computer-readable medium may be a read-only memory (ROM),a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmableread-only memory (EEPROM), or other type of memory device.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of thepresent disclosure are merely possible examples of implementations setforth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure.Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit andprinciples of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure andprotected by the following claims.

Therefore, the following is claimed:
 1. A non-transitory computerreadable medium embodying at least one program executable in at leastone computing device, the at least one program having instructions thatperform operations comprising: detecting a failed attempt to recognize apredefined identifier associated with a receivable item; accessing alisting of inventory items associated with an inventory; obtainingcorroborating information associated with the receivable item;identifying a subset of the inventory items from the listing that isassociated with the corroborating information; attempting to identify amatch between a first image of the receivable item and a second image ofone of the inventory items in the subset of the inventory items; andfacilitating rendering of an item identifier associated with the one ofthe inventory items in the subset of the inventory items to beassociated with receivable item if the match is successfully identified.2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein thecorroborating information comprises an order number for a shipment inwhich the receivable item was received, a vendor name, an advanceshipment notification generated by a vendor, a quantity of items withina container making up the shipment, a purchase order associated with adelivery vehicle within which the shipment arrived, or a barcodeidentifier.
 3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1,the operations further comprising detecting that the item identifier ismissing from the receivable item and implementing a rendering of areplacement item identifier to be physically associated with thereceivable item if the match is successfully identified.
 4. A system,comprising: a listing of inventory items that is maintained in a memoryaccessible to at least one computing device; an image capture devicethat captures a first image of a receivable item; and the at least onecomputing device configured to perform: obtaining, by the at least onecomputing device, corroborating information associated with thereceivable item; determining, by the at least one computing device, asubset of the inventory items that is associated with at least thecorroborating information; attempting, by the at least one computingdevice, to identify a match between the first image of the receivableitem and a second image of one of the inventory items in the subset ofthe inventory items; and rendering, by the at least one computingdevice, an indication that the receivable item was positively correlatedto one of the inventory items in the subset of the inventory items ifthe match is successfully identified.
 5. The system of claim 4, whereinthe at least one computing device is further configured to detect that aportion of an item identifier is missing from the receivable item and toimplement a rendering of a replacement item identifier to be physicallyassociated with the receivable item if the match is successfullyidentified.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the corroboratinginformation comprises a partial item identifier obtained from a portionof the item identifier that is not missing from the receivable item. 7.The system of claim 5, wherein the at least one computing device isfurther configured to implement a rendering of a placeholder itemidentifier to be physically associated with the receivable item if thematch is not successfully identified.
 8. The system of claim 4, whereinthe corroborating information comprises an order number for a shipment,a vendor name, an advance shipment notification generated by a vendor, aquantity of items within a container making up the shipment, a purchaseorder associated with a delivery vehicle within which the shipmentarrived, or a barcode identifier.
 9. The system of claim 4, wherein theat least one computing device further comprises at least one inputdevice that facilitates an input of at least one corroborating item ofinformation associated with the receivable item.
 10. The system of claim4, wherein a plurality of subsets of inventory items is associated withthe corroborating information, the at least one computing device beingfurther configured to select the subset of inventory items whichcontains a smallest number of members for which the match is attemptedto be identified.
 11. The system of claim 4, wherein the at least onecomputing device is further configured to determine that the subset ofthe inventory items is associated with the corroborating information andan additional common characteristic shared with the receivable item. 12.A method, comprising: storing a listing of a plurality of inventoryitems in a memory accessible by at least one computing device, thelisting of the plurality of inventory items including first images ofinventory items; capturing a second image of a receivable item;obtaining corroborating information associated with the receivable item;determining, by the at least one computing device, a subset of theinventory items that is associated with at least the corroboratinginformation; attempting, by the at least one computing device, tocorrelate the second image of the receivable item to one of the firstimages of the subset of the inventory items; and rendering, by the atleast one computing device, an indication that the receivable item waspositively correlated to one of the inventory items in the subset of theinventory items if the second image is successfully correlated with afirst image of the one of the inventory items in the subset of theinventory items.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprisingrendering a replacement item identifier associated with the one of theinventory items in the subset of the inventory items to be associatedwith the receivable item if the second image is successfully correlatedwith the first image of the one of the inventory items in the subset ofthe inventory items.
 14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:obtaining a weight associated with the one of the inventory items in thesubset of the inventory items that corresponds to the first image of theone of the inventory items in the subset of the inventory items;weighing the receivable item; and verifying that the second imagecorrelates to the first image of the one of the inventory items in thesubset of inventory items by determining whether a measured weight ofthe receivable item comports with the weight associated with the one ofthe inventory items in the subset of the inventory items.
 15. The methodof claim 12, further comprising rendering a placeholder item identifierto be physically associated with the receivable item if the second imageis not successfully correlated to one of the first images of theinventory items in the subset of the inventory items.
 16. The method ofclaim 12, further comprising designating the receivable item within aninventory as non-shippable when the receivable item cannot be correlatedwith one of the inventory items.
 17. The method of claim 12, wherein thecorroborating information comprises an order number for a shipment, avendor name, an advance shipment notification generated by a vendor, aquantity of items within a container making up the shipment, a purchaseorder associated with a delivery vehicle within which the shipmentarrived, or a barcode identifier.
 18. The method of claim 12, wherein aplurality of subsets of inventory items is associated with thecorroborating information, the method further comprising selecting thesubset of inventory items which contains a smallest number of membersfor which the successful correlation is attempted.
 19. The method ofclaim 18, wherein the plurality of subsets is considered, in the attemptto correlate, in a progression based upon a count of the inventory itemsin each respective subset, the progression proceeding from smallest tolargest count.
 20. The method of claim 12, wherein the subset of theinventory items is determined to be associated with the corroboratinginformation and an additional common characteristic shared with thereceivable item.